The present invention relates generally to a window in a vehicle, and in particular to a mounting assembly for a vehicle window.
For some automotive vehicles, customers are offered an option—for certain windows on the vehicle—to have fixed glass or a window that can open. The windows that can open typically have a window pane that slides in guide channels between inner and outer portions of a seal in a window opening. The opening and closing motion may be driven by a hand crank, a so-called manually opening window, or by a motor, a so-called power window. For the fixed glass configuration, the window pane is typically bonded in place over the window opening with urethane and encapsulated with a rubber weatherstrip surround.
The look of the window for a fixed glass window, then, is different from the look of the window in the same vehicle when a moving window option is chosen. Moreover, the shape of the window pane is different for the two, requiring two different shaped pieces of glass, one for each type of construction. This also requires a different door/vehicle body construction for fixed and moving glass systems. Thus, the application of two different mounting techniques for fixed and moving window options in a particular vehicle is undesirable, since it does not allow a particular vehicle to have a common appearance for the different window options, and it requires a different construction for the window pane and structure.
In order to overcome these drawbacks, some have employed a window pane and door construction for a movable window—whether or not the window pane is meant to be fixed. For the movable window configurations, the usual manual or power window mechanisms (also called regulators) are employed. For a fixed window, most of the manual window mechanism is installed. The window pane is also installed and mounted to the manual window mechanism. Then, the mechanism is used once at the assembly plant to move the window pane into the full up (closed) position, and is locked in this position. No window crank handle is put on the inside of the door so it can never be rolled down. This gives the customer a fixed glass window while maintaining the same look of vehicles whether they have a fixed window, manually opening, or a power opening window. Moreover, the same window pane and essentially the same door construction can be employed for all of the configurations. However, this one time use of the manual regulator assembly includes most of the components necessary for a manually opening window, such as a cable system, clutch drive mechanism, long rails for guiding the window to its full up and down positions, etc. So this configuration adds significantly to the weight, number of parts, complexity and cost of the more conventional fixed window.